Back Pain Doctor
Back Pain Doctor is a fully private practice. Appointments are longer than a standard consultation and the fee reflects that: time to take a proper history, examine you, review your imaging ourselves rather than rely only on the report, and set out a plan you can actually follow. All consultation fees are listed below, in full, before you book.
45 minutes reserved
$400
payable on the day
Consulting time usually runs 20–40 minutes. The full 45 minutes is held for you so the appointment is not cut short.
Longer and more complex consultations may be billed under item 44, which carries a higher rebate.
30 minutes
$280
payable on the day
Reassessment, results review, treatment planning, or an in-room procedure with the review that goes with it.
15 minutes
$150
payable on the day
For a treatment already underway — a scheduled shockwave session, a brief progress check, or a straightforward follow-up.
Rebates shown are the Medicare benefit for general practitioner attendance items as at 1 July 2026. Schedule fees are indexed by the Commonwealth each 1 July. The item claimed is determined by the clinical content and duration of the consultation, not chosen in advance, so the rebate for your appointment may differ from the figure above. Once you have reached the Extended Medicare Safety Net threshold, your out-of-pocket cost drops substantially — see below.
Costs for procedures such as ultrasound-guided injections, shockwave therapy, EMTT, PRP, prolotherapy and nerve hydrodissection are quoted at your consultation, once there is a diagnosis and an agreed plan. Quoting a price before assessment would mean pricing a treatment you may not need. You will be given the cost, the likely number of sessions, and whether a Medicare rebate applies, before anything is booked.
Important Medicare information
This is separate from our fees. It explains a Medicare program that may reduce your eligible out-of-pocket costs after you reach a yearly threshold.
80%
of eligible out-of-pocket costs after the threshold, up to the service cap
Calendar year
eligible costs across all providers can count; thresholds reset on 1 January
Families register
family registration is not automatic, even on the same Medicare card
This is the single most useful thing most patients can do to reduce what they spend on medical care over a year, and it is routinely missed. The Extended Medicare Safety Net (EMSN) counts the out-of-pocket cost of every Medicare-eligible service you receive outside hospital across a calendar year — GP and specialist consultations, imaging, pathology — from all providers, not just this practice. Once you pass the threshold, Medicare pays 80% of your out-of-pocket costs for the rest of that calendar year, up to a capped amount for each service.
| EMSN threshold 2026 | Yearly out-of-pocket costs Out-of-pocket costs in the calendar year |
|---|---|
| Concession card holders and families receiving Family Tax Benefit (Part A) | $861.20 |
| Everyone else | $2,699.10 |
Thresholds are set by Services Australia and indexed on 1 January each year. Both thresholds reset to zero on 1 January.
This section is general information, not financial advice, and it is not a statement of what you personally will be paid. Medicare Safety Net thresholds, benefit amounts and benefit caps are set by the Commonwealth and change without notice to us. Whether you have reached a threshold depends on your own claiming history across every provider you have seen, your concession status and your family registration — none of which we can see.
Before relying on any figure on this page, check your current position directly with Services Australia through your Medicare online account, the Express Plus Medicare app, or by phoning 132 011. Services Australia is the authoritative source, and their advice overrides anything stated here.
Before the Safety Net
$192.90 out of pocket
After the threshold in this example
About $38.58
Suppose you have reached your threshold partway through the year. A review consultation here costs $280, Medicare rebates $87.10, leaving $192.90 out of pocket. The Safety Net then pays 80% of that $192.90 — a further $154.32 — so your actual cost for that appointment falls to about $38.58. A new consultation billed under item 36 falls from $312.90 to roughly $62.58, and a short treatment consultation from $104.95 to roughly $20.99.
There is a ceiling on the Safety Net payment itself — not on what you are charged, but on the maximum extra benefit Medicare will pay for any one service. For consultation items that ceiling is 300% of the Medicare schedule fee, or $500, whichever is lower: $261.30 for item 36, $135.15 for item 23, $385.05 for item 44. You receive either 80% of your out-of-pocket cost or that ceiling, whichever is the smaller amount. At our current fees the 80% figure is the smaller one in every case, so the ceiling does not reduce your benefit and the full 80% applies.
These are worked examples, not a quote. Your position depends on your own claiming history across all providers, and the schedule fees these caps are calculated from are indexed each 1 July.
The action most families miss
Individuals are counted automatically and need do nothing. Couples and families are not — you must register with Services Australia for your costs to accumulate together, and this is required even when everyone is already listed on the same Medicare card. Registration takes a few minutes, is a one-off unless your family circumstances change, and is the step most people miss.
Only costs you have actually paid count towards a Safety Net threshold. Because accounts here are settled in advance or on the day, every dollar you spend with us counts automatically.
The full fee is payable by you, in advance or on the day of your appointment, by card or EFTPOS. We do not issue unpaid accounts or invoice third parties, and we do not defer payment pending a claim to Medicare, an insurer or anyone else.
Once the account is paid, your Medicare rebate is claimed on the spot and is usually in your nominated bank account within one to two business days. Please check that Services Australia holds your current bank details, otherwise the rebate cannot be paid to you.
There is no bulk billing and no concession rate. If your care is funded by another party — WorkCover, a CTP insurer, DVA or an employer — the fee is the same and remains payable by you, in advance or on the day. We provide an itemised invoice and receipt, and you lodge the claim with your insurer yourself.
We ask for at least 24 hours’ notice to change or cancel an appointment. Appointments cancelled inside 24 hours, or not attended, are charged at the full consultation fee, which Medicare does not rebate. These are long appointments and cannot realistically be offered to someone else at short notice. If something genuinely unavoidable happens, call us — the policy is applied with judgement.
No. Every patient is charged the same fee regardless of concession status, referral source or who is ultimately funding the care. The fee reflects the appointment length and the assessment involved, and we would rather be straightforward about that than run short appointments to make bulk billing viable.
No referral is required to book. Dr Hatch is a specialist general practitioner working in musculoskeletal medicine, so the consultation is billed under general practitioner attendance items and a referral is not needed for the Medicare rebate. If your GP has already organised imaging or written a letter, please bring it — it makes the first consultation considerably more useful.
That depends entirely on what is appropriate for your diagnosis, and it is not something that can be answered honestly before you have been assessed. You will be given the cost of any recommended procedure — including how many sessions are likely and what a Medicare rebate does or does not cover — before anything is booked or charged.
No. Australian law prevents private health funds from covering out-of-hospital medical consultations. Medicare is the only rebate that applies, plus the Medicare Safety Net once you reach the threshold. Your fund may cover related allied health care such as physiotherapy or exercise physiology under extras.
The fee is the same, and you remain personally responsible for it — payable in advance or on the day, regardless of who is ultimately funding your care. We will provide an itemised invoice and receipt, and you claim reimbursement from your insurer or DVA directly. We do not bill third-party insurers and do not defer payment while a claim is being decided.
Not meaningfully. The Original Medicare Safety Net lifts the rebate from 85% to 100% of the schedule fee, but general practitioner attendance items are already rebated at 100%, so there is no gap for it to close. The Extended Medicare Safety Net is the one that matters here, because it applies to your actual out-of-pocket cost.
Medicare schedule fees are indexed by the Commonwealth on 1 July each year, and Safety Net thresholds are indexed on 1 January. The figures on this page were last checked in August 2026 against MBS Online and Services Australia. Services Australia is always the authoritative source for your own position.
Fees, Medicare rebates and Safety Net thresholds on this page were last reviewed in August 2026. Rebate and threshold amounts are set by the Commonwealth and can change. For your own Medicare position, Services Australia is the authoritative source.
Ready for a clearer plan for your back or musculoskeletal pain?
Your assessment focuses on understanding the likely source of your pain and the most appropriate non-surgical options for your diagnosis, with the aim of reducing pain and improving function.
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